Most forums on RpgForums.Net come with a long list of questions and answers. We have decided that we'd like to skip over the length and jump right down into the rules and regulations of this forum. These rules are basically specific continuations of the main rules that are exerted over all of RpgForums.Net. Those rules are like the American Constitution, while these rules are like the laws of an individual state. Now that this brief explanation is out of the way, here are the following rules for the Fan Fiction Forum. We recommend following these if you'd actually like to get anywhere within this forum.

Here goes.

Part A: Posting Stories and Commenting on Written Works

1. Read the FFF Rules and Regulations before you post anything within this forum. If you don't understand a certain rule then PM Snowglare or me. It is usually very obvious when a post doesn't conform to the forum standards. Usually when this happens other users will either laugh at you, or immediately decide not to actually read your story. They'll also usually make sure to tell you this. To avoid this, take the 5-10 minutes to read these rules. Reading the rules tends to help with a lot of things. Like not committing murder, staying out of jail, etc. It's no different here.

2. It is not required that your story be well written, but please do not post ugly first drafts. Go over your work, fixing the errors you can find. Help yourself before seeking help here. It is easily discernable whether an author has put five minutes of work into a piece of writing or many hours worth of work into it. If you don't want people telling you how much your story sucks, put some time into it. Usually the quality of a story is directly proportional to how much time has been put into writing it. Forum members tend to react negatively towards writing that burns out their eyes.

3. If you couldn't care less about the quality of your story, neither do we. Don't post it here. FanFiction.net will gladly take any trash you have to offer. We prefer at least some quality writing... that or authors willing to do things to improve the quality of their writing.

4. Don't flame or personally insult... the authors. Their writing, on the other hand, is game as long as the criticism stays somewhat in the realm of the constructive. Once again though, if you dump a bunch of random misspelled words into a forum post, don't expect to get happy responses. At the same time, if all you do is troll and tell every other writer that their story is crap, don't expect Snowglare or me to fancy you very much either. Negative story criticism is okay (in moderation). Witty negative story criticism is better. Above all, constructive criticism is the best and most smiled upon.

5. Do not direct personal insults at any member under any circumstance. If you are insulted, report the post, but do not retaliate. If I see a flame war going on, I don't care who started it, all the users involved will get in trouble. Prevent flame wars, PM a mod or report the post. This may seem redundant with Part A: Rule 4., but it deserves the repetition. Criticize the story, not the author, etc. etc.

6. Willful Plagiarism = Banned. Don't expect tolerance for any deed of this nature. Of all infractions, this would be considered the worst. See sites like this one for more information on copyright law. Fair use means that you can quote small parts of a creative work, not reproduce it in its entirety. Never try to take credit for work that isn't yours. Otherwise, our trained ninja cats will track you down and claw you to death. And after they do that, we'll ban you.

8. Back up all of your writing on your hard drive, on CD, on floppy, on paper, whatever. The forum may crash at any time, and there will most likely be no way to retrieve it then. You should realize by now that digital media on the net is not usually permanent. Even if you get it into a place like TDL, there are still chances that something could go wrong, so back it up!

9. If you have a new chapter or revised version of an old chapter for a story you've already started a thread for, post it on that thread. Multiple threads for one story will in most cases be merged. If you continue to make more than one thread without some sort of relevant reason, you could eventually end up with a ban or at least a very stern warning against doing it again.

10. Do not post any pornographic or erotic stories, or stories with excessive profanity. They may be deleted at the discretion of the moderators. Some things you can get away with, some things you can't. When in doubt, don't... or ask one of the mods.

11. Even though this is a Diablo II Fan Fiction Forum, you may posts works of any genre. The focus is on writing, any writing, not just fan fiction.

12. When you write Diablo stories, be original. Don't go through the overly done and extremely boring route of following the plot of the game (unless you are Anyee or Bane). Use the world of Sanctuary to tell a new story, one that also takes place in that world. If you must do the game plotline, do it very well (e.g. with a lot of originality and expansion and extremely skilled writing and great imagery and and and...). Otherwise, we probably won't read it. It is tired. Try something new.

14. Wondering why your thread or post was locked, edited or deleted? PM a moderator. The last thing you should do is make a Why was my thread locked??? thread. Ok, second to last. The last thing you should do is make a y wuz my thred lokced??/? thread and flame the mods, their family, the forum, the forum's family, dii.net as a whole, and our little dog too. We retain the right to lock a thread on a whim. We retain the right to delete a thread at any point in time. You don't like that? well, talk it over with the ninja cats when they come to remove your head.

15. Last but not least, remember this is a forum for writing and the improvement of writing. Use it for that.

Appendix: Just for your general information, check this site out to learn about common errors in the English language.

Part B: Non-story Threads

1. Topics of discussion are limited; non-story posts should still pertain to writing in some way. This is a forum for writing, so keep it under that realm. Feel free to discuss and interpret literature. Feel free to talk about writing theory, the history of the English language, etc. You should get the picture. If it is about writing in some way, it is probably acceptable. If you aren't sure whether your topic is appropriate for the fan fiction forum, please ask a moderator.

2. If the post doesn't conform to the above, we will consider it Off-Topic. When it comes to off-topic posts, how it is handled is at the discretion of the moderators. In general, for your first offense, we'll tell you about it and then move your post to the correct forum. Upon your second offense, we'll just delete the post. On your third offense, other actions may become necessary, such as your account being banned. If you blatantly spam O/T posts, we will just skip to the last offense and ban you. Hopefully even IP ban you. Yes, this stuff annoys us. It isn't that hard to keep your respective topics within their respective forums. If you find this too difficult... well I'm not quite sure how you figured out how to get online.

3. You spam; we ban. Pretty simple.

4. In discussion the same rules of courtesy apply as in commenting on stories. Attack the topic, argument, debate, etc., but not the author. Create a flame war, and we'll burn you.

5. If you post utter garbage, don't cry when it gets locked or deleted, and we make fun of you.

6. Remember, this forum is about writing and relevant topics. Keep it that way. Keep personal chat for PMs.

1. The Dark Library (henceforth referred to as TDL) is a place for authors to post works of fiction set in the Diablo, Diablo 2, and World of Warcraft universes, as well as non-gaming fiction of all sorts, though we would prefer the plots to evolve in a fantasy setting. TDL will also host RPGs (serial fiction written by a group of authors) and character concepts (theoretical characters that could appear in D1, D2, or WoW). This is a place where finished or near-finished, polished works will be posted, so a higher level of quality is definitely expected.
(taken from TDL's FAQ)

2. The Dark Library (i.e. Anyee and Kahn) may take any story that is posted to any of the Fan Fiction Forums (including this one) and place it within its archives. It will of course give credit to the author. Preferably though, the author will usually just be asked to come to TDL, sign up as a member (which is free), and submit their story. We usually only take stories without explicitly asking whenever we hit a particularly dry spell of little to no submissions (this hasn't happened in a while... I still try to make myself believe this is a good thing ).

3. We have high standards at TDL. We don't validate stories that suck. We are also very harsh when it comes to following submission guidelines. If you burn out our eyes, not only will we not accept the story and send the ninja cats after you, but we'll also send Anyee after you. She's been after me before. It wasn't pretty. You've been warned.

4. The best order is to post your story to the Fan Fiction Forum before you submit it to TDL. That way you can correct errors that would make us delete your submission. Many users get this process backwards. Try not to be one of them. Thanks.

That's all for the Rules and Regulations of DiabloII.Net's Fan Fiction Forum. These rules are subject to change at any time by those with the power to do so (Snowglare, Kahn... also Anyee if it deals with the any TDL aspect). Thanks for reading this. Let the fun begin. In general, just respect the spirit of this forum, the people at this forum, and yourself. Do that and you should have a very enjoyable time at the lovely Fan Fiction Forum.